April 30, 2021
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Deuteronomy? Here’s today’s reading:
Deuteronomy 13 (NIV)
Worshiping Other Gods
1 If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, 2 and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,”.......Continue Reading
Deception comes in various forms and from various sources. God gives warning here to the Israelites to watch out. We must be aware of people leading us astray as well and must constantly be established in our faith to guard against the deception that will only intensify as time goes on. We certainly should not address the deceiver in the ways prescribed here, but we should draw sharp lines between what is true and what is false in our own hearts.
It is also interesting that we find here a reason why some people who promote false teaching are successful in what they do. God at times allows that success to test us: are we going to follow the objective truth of who God is and what He says, or are we going to follow subjective analysis of positive results or miraculous signs or personal experience. The focus is to be on the content of what is being taught and not on the prosperity of something. But this all reenforces the point that the Word of God is to define our faith, and not the messages that come from culture or the world.
Sound biblical doctrine is important. When someone tries to deceive us, we know the truth and can separate ourselves from them, choosing to adhere to God and the truth of his word. No wonder God appeals to the people to be sure to talk about his word to the next generation.
Deuteronomy 13
Amazing how relevant this is to our world today. So many “spiritual leaders” who lead their followers to follow somthing that is not our God. And that false god is usually wrapped in a pretty package that is so appealing to the world. A package that lets you decide for yourself what is right and wrong, that everything is fine as long as you are “a nice person”, that we are responsible for our own salvation. A pretty package with a serpent inside; one that leads us away from the objective truth outside of ourselves, the salvation of Jesus Christ on the cross.
I see two commands here. The direct command to root out these false teachers and banish them, and the implicit command to know God well enough to recognize Him. We must always remember that false teachers can and will use the name of God or Jesus in their teachings, so it requires knowledge to know these teachings for what they are.
So important that we stand firm in our belief of God as our savior. This world has so many false prophets who twist even the Bible itself for selfish motivation and to further their own agendas. We can be so easily deceived and God tells us here how determinantal that will be for us!
Appreciated everyone’s comments on this scripture!
Anyone….ANYONE who entices you after other gods is to be put to death…the application in New Testament times, I suppose, would be to discern the spirits, using the Word of God and reject false teachers and leaders and “friends”.
It is interesting the intimacy of relationships that Satan uses to lead us astray: “If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, 7 of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, 8 you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; 9 but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. 10 And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 11 So all Israel shall hear and fear, and not again do such wickedness as this among you.”
There is the temptation to “pity”, “spare” or “conceal” him. How often have Christians entered into relationships with deceivers out of pity.
4It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.